Month: May 2018

Portrait of a catcher

May 21, 2018

catcher loc

This photograph from the collections of the Library of Congress looks simple enough, but it prompts a lot of questions for me.  It is noted that the photo was taken between 1873 and 1916.  Given that the catcher’s mask wasn’t invented until 1876 and it wasn’t until a few years later that their use became common among backstops, we can eliminate the first few years of that range.  The mitt, meanwhile, resembles the one patented by J.F. Draper in 1899, so I think it is safe to say this photo is likely from the early 20th century.

My questions, however, involve the player himself:  Who is he?  Where is he from?  What team does he play for?  Is he really a baseball player, or merely a man off the street the photographer convinced to put on some equipment for a photo op?

And if he really is a ballplayer, what is he thinking?  He appears to be standing behind home plate, looking out at the field before him.  Is he deciding on what pitch to ask for next?  Is he unhappy with how the defense is arranged?  Or is he upset because that damned umpire called the last pitch a ball when it was clearly over the outside corner?

Its listing in the Library of Congress catalog doesn’t answer any of those questions, unfortunately.  I guess I’ll just have to continue to study the photo and wonder.

This day in baseball: The first Scot

May 20, 2018

On May 20, 1878, Jim McCormick became the first player born in Scotland to appear in a major league game.  In his debut, right-handed pitcher McCormick and the Indianapolis Blues lost to the Chicago White Stockings, 3-1.  The following season, the Scot would become the team’s manager as the team made its move to Cleveland.  At the age of 23, this made McCormick the youngest skipper in the game.

Jim_McCormick_baseball_card
Wikimedia Commons

Quote of the day

May 18, 2018

Baseball is the very symbol, the outward and visible expression of the drive and push and rush and struggle of the raging, tearing, booming nineteenth century.

~Mark Twain

Image result for mark twain
Wikimedia Commons

This day in baseball: Palmer’s debut

May 16, 2018

Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer, aged nineteen, made his Major League debut on May 16, 1965 when he came on in relief to pitch 3.2 innings. The O’s defeated the Yankees, 7-2, and Palmer recorded his first major league win. To top it all off, Palmer also managed to hit a two-run home run off Yankees starting pitcher Jim Bouton in the fourth inning. Palmer would finish the season with a 5-4 record.

palmer

Effa Louise Manley

May 15, 2018

effa manley

Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006, Effa Louise Manley co-owned the Newark Eagles baseball franchise in the Negro leagues (alongside her husband, Abe Manley) from 1935 to 1946. After her husband’s death, she then became sole owner of the team through 1948. She was also a noted activist, active in the Civil Rights Movement and serving as treasurer of the Newark chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Effa Manley was born on March 27, 1897 in Philadelphia (some sources cite her birth year as 1900). Her actual racial background also remains a mystery — some speculate that she was of mixed race while others believe she was a white woman who could pass as black. Manley herself seemed to enjoy the confusion generated by her ethnic background. She graduated from Penn Central High School in 1916, completing vocational training in cooking, oral expression, and sewing. Following high school, she moved to New York City.

In New York, Manley could often be found at Yankee Stadium, taking in ballgames. “Babe Ruth made a baseball fan of me,” Manley reportedly said. “I used to go to Yankee Stadium just to see him come to bat.” At a World Series game in 1932, Manley met her future husband, Abe. The couple married in 1935, and he involved her in the operation of his own club, the Newark Eagles in New Jersey.

As co-owner of the Eagles, Manley didn’t fit into the traditional 1930s homemaker mold for women. She managed day-to-day business operations for the team, handled contracts and travel schedules, and she proved particularly talented at marketing. She developed a number of promotions that advanced the Civil Rights Movement as well as a variety of other causes and benefits. Under Manley’s leadership, the Eagles invited soldiers during World War II to Eagles games for free. They also hosted benefits for various causes, including the Harlem Fight for Freedom Committee and the Newark Community Hospital. Within the Negro Leagues, Manley worked to improve conditions for players in the entire league. She advocated for better scheduling, better pay, and better accommodations. Under Manley, the Newark Eagles traveled in an air-conditioned bus, a rare luxury in the Negro Leagues.

During Manley’s time with the team, the Eagles won the Negro League World Series in 1946. Among the Eagles players during Manley’s ownership were future MLB stars such as Larry Doby, Monte Irvin, and Don Newcombe.

Following integration of Major League Baseball, attendance at Eagles games plummeted, from 120,000 in 1946 to 57,000 in 1948. Like many other Negro League teams, Newark found itself unable to continue generating profits. Even after selling the club to a group of investors in 1948, Manley continued to stay involved in baseball. She co-authored a book on black baseball with Leon Hardwick, and she donated a scrapbook of her years with Newark to the Baseball Hall of Fame. She also wrote letters lobbying for Negro leaguers to be admitted into Cooperstown.

Effa Manley died of a heart attack on April 16, 1981. She was buried in Culver City at the Holy Cross Cemetery. She was the first woman inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Infographic: Craig Biggio HoF

May 12, 2018

I came across this graphic quite accidentally, but now that I’ve found it, I’m thinking it’d be fun and interesting to see if there are more like it for other Hall of Famers.  Craig Biggio never won a World Series with the Astros (though they appeared in one in 2005), but he was still a player worth talking about.  Biggio was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015.

Biggio HOF